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Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Today marks two years since Kyle and I said "I do" in his parents' backyard on the most beautiful and perfect late September morning. I'm happy to report that year two of our marriage has been way less stressful and so much more fun that year one was. What a rough honeymoon year we had. Luckily year two felt like the honeymoon stage that we missed out on.

Despite it being an easier year, I couldn't be more thankful to have this guy by my side. He supports me on my crazy running dreams and adventures, and is just as weird of a pug dad as I am a pug mom. Love love love.

Monday, September 25, 2017

Last year, I had such a blast doing all of the Sioux Falls Parks and Rec 5ks both in June and September/October. The only bummer about running and training going so well for the Twin Cities 10 Mile, was that racing a 5k didn't really fit into our training weekly. However, two weeks out from our goal race, we squeezed in the 5k to use as a race predictor for the 10 mile. I had hoped to be in the 8:00-8:15 range based on my 10 mile goal pace. My speedwork sessions in the 3k-5k range had been 7:50-8:20 throughout the past training cycle.

Toni and I went for a two mile warm up with 4x100 strides in mile 2. And my legs felt like GARBAGE. My calves were so tight from all the hills the day prior. Yikes. I honestly thought about not doing the race at all, but I hoped that my legs would eventually loosen up. I usually make sure I have at least a rest day or easy day in between long runs and speedwork, so I was really hoping I wasn't going to break myself before the goal race!

Right as the race was starting, I realized my watch had reset itself, so I quickly tried to find satellites. Shortly after we started I looked down and saw a 4:12 pace, so I'm sure it was a little wonky to start. Lolz. Toni flew by me and was in the lead for females, and I was sitting in 2nd. Another glance at my watch showed 7:37 pace, which may have been just a little too fast. Another female came up on me halfway through mile one and we ran together for a bit, and then I pulled ahead. Right at the one mile marker, she pulled ahead again.

Mile 1 8:10

I had assumed she was speeding up, until my watch confirmed that she was maintaining while I was quickly fading. Gulp. Mile 2 is always the worst for me, so I just tried not to let the gap between us fade too much and get to the turn around asap. Once I'm "halfway done" I can usually convince myself to pick up the pace and dig deeper. A biker was coming from the opposite direction at the turn around, so I slowed down quite a bit so we didn't collide, and suddenly 2nd place female was light years ahead of me. Crap. I failed to look at my watch at the turn around, so I wasn't sure what my first half split was, or what the distance was at the turn around. This race is always a short course, but it was a new route because the bike trail is closed, so I wasn't sure if it'd be around 3 or a full 3.1.

Mile 2 8:37

The final mile, I kept closing in on guys who I had assumed had gone out too fast and were struggling. Thanks for the motivation dudes! But when I'd come up to pass them, they weren't wearing bibs, and were just out for their runs. Hah. I appreciate them spurring my competitiveness regardless. Hah. I picked it up a little in the final mile, but my legs just didn't have any spring in them. I knew I'd have to go to a super painful place to go any faster than what I was doing and I just didn't want to risk injury or something stupid for a little faster 5k (3 mile) time/pace. I barely even picked it up the last 30 seconds according to my garmin. oops.

Friday, September 22, 2017

When I woke up the morning of my 13th consecutive Sioux Falls Half Marathon, I woke up to lightning flashing outside my windows. Friends were texting me worried about the weather. I pulled up some radar and pretended I knew what was happening and thought we were on the tail end of it, so I didn't worry. I picked up Toni and we made our way to the race start. My stomach was super angry and I was in and out of the bathroom a lot. The races were delayed 15 minutes due to the weather, and I'm very thankful for that one extra trip to the bathroom. Phew.

We snapped a picture with the SFWR group and then made our way down to the race start. I had my last bathroom stop, so we ended up being pretty far back. We saw our friend Jordanne and her dad, and she told us to cut and line up with her. Her and her dad were running together, planning for a 10:30 pace, so I had asked if I could join them for company. I knew Toni would be running faster, so she really needed to head up ahead of us! Before we knew it, Kelly shot the gun and we were off. In true Jeri fashion, I refused to run until I crossed the starting line. I'm a jerk like that. Hah.

The bad part about starting inside is that I didn't have satellite signal. And it took forever for my watch to finally hook up with satellite. Toni ran with me for the first half mile which is great, because once my watch did tell me a pace, it was 15-17 minute miles. Toni confirmed that we were running 9:10 pace. Oh. Ok. It's a little early for that. Before I shooed her ahead of me, I had her tell me what distance her watch was at so I knew how far off I was.

I settled in for some miles, and let Toni go on her way. I was footsteps behind Jordanne and her dad, but I knew they had planned to experience their race together, so I just hung out in their presence. The first two miles were pancake flat, so I focused on hitting that nice 10:30 long run pace. I auto lapped my Garmin at the 1 mile marker so I could get accurate paces from there. During mile three there were some up and downhills, and I made sure to keep it easy on the downhill portions so my IT bands didn't get angry. I chatted with a lot of folks as I made my way downtown.

1. 10:33
2. 10:30
3. 10:40

Around 3.5 miles in, I realized I was feeling really good, and my heart rate was super low. Like, recovery run low (averaging 148, usually my long runs are 155-165). So I stopped being so focused on keeping my pace at 10:30 and allowed myself to run a little quicker, especially during the uphill

portions.

4. 10:18
5. 10:30
6. 10:06

I started to see a lot of my friends out cheering on the race in miles 4 and 5 and that made the race really fun. There were some portions of the race in this stretch that weren't my favorite. At one point we ran through a parking lot for part of the route. That's not exactly the best view of our city, imo.

Near mile 5 we got to the Falls Park and ran by the spot my mom has cheered at for years and years and years. I got a little teary eyed heading down to the spot, and then found myself laughing, because for the second year in a row there was no one in her spot. It is *such* a good spot, you can see the runners making their way to the falls, you get a great shot of them coming to you, and there's a great angle as they make their way away from you, hence why she always got that exact spot. I laughed because I could just see her yelling at people to "get out of her damn way" so she didn't miss me. :)

I ran into my running buddy, fellow SFWR pal, and yoga student Holley who was making her way through the replay. I got to chat with her for a few minutes before I hustled on my way.

7. 10:20
8. 10:08
9. 10:12

Miles 7-9 were on stretches of the bike path that I run all of the time. They're fairly flat, so it wasn't hard to pick up the pace a bit. I stopped looking at my watch except for when it beeped the mile markers. I also saw Kyle and his parents during this stretch. Somehow Kyle had missed me at the beginning, so he was stuck twiddling his thumbs until I got to mile 9.

10. 10:23
11. 9:37

Heading into mile 10 I knew we had our last big hill, but apparently I didn't remember last year's route very well. Instead of being a long abrupt uphill that lasted 6 blocks, it was a long slow moderate uphill that went for about a mile and a half. Shockingly enough, I felt really strong and was blowing by people. With three miles left, I put in my earbuds and turned on my iPod. Miles 11 and 12 are still hilly, but more of rolling hills (the out and back portion from the first few miles of the race, essentially), so I just worked on running that uncomfortable tempo pace. I had hoped to get down to 9 or 9:15 pace for the last three miles, but with the hills, that just wasn't in the cards.

12. 9:28
13. 9:13

I saw Kyle in mile 12 and told him he had 9 minutes to get to the finish line. He didn't make it. Hah.

I did see him just a few minutes later with his parents, so that makes it okay I suppose. I knew I was going to be close to my 2:12 "goal" time/race estimate, so I ran in the final .2 miles hard.

.2 1:23 (6:57 pace)

2:13:26 average pace 10:10

I'm really excited about how this race was. I felt great the whole time, and it was the first race I've finished in a long time where I thought to myself "I could totally run another 13.1 miles". Usually I'm saying "thank GOD I'm not doing the marathon!" from mile 6 to 13.

I'm excited for the Twin Cities 10 mile next week and the half in Boston in November!

Thursday, September 21, 2017

The day before the Sioux Falls Half Marathon was a pretty busy day. I taught my monthly yoga class at the WoodGrain Brewing Co. I debated about staying after for a beer, and ultimately opted to stick around to enjoy a delicious IPA, after all, I wasn't racing on Sunday. I chatted with Ryan about running and a fellow yoga teacher about life and it was a lot of fun. It randomly started down pouring so that solidified my decision to hang out.

Finally it was time to head to the expo to pick up my race bib. I had sent BRF Toni there to skip my class because SFWR were selling some expo exclusive gear and I knew it wouldn't be there by the time I got to the expo. She snagged me an awesome pint glass and long sleeve shirt. So cute.

I got there and made my way to the packet pick up. I got my bib stamped so I could get a post-race beer (this is an important detail that will become very relevant in the story to come), and made my way back through the expo. A bunch of my friends were there working different booths, I bought a couple of awesome tanks for myself and Toni. Definitely check out 73Threads, super cute printed shirts/tanks in tons of colors and styles at reasonable prices (not an ad, just happy with the product!).

I stopped and chatted with the SFWR ladies at their booth, talked to some friends about their race plans as I was still looking for someone to run for fun with, that wouldn't mind when I picked up the pace with three miles to go, as was the plan, and chatted with the POWER coach, and the crew from 605 Running Co.

Before too long, I was on my way home, starving, ready to head out for my shake out run and to hang out on the couch relaxing and reading a book. When I got home, I took a few moments to scroll through Instagram where I noticed Toni had posted a pic of her race bib. Ooh, good idea! I rifled through my bag for my bib.... and I couldn't find it. I tore every single piece of paper and marketing material out of my bag to find my bib. It wasn't there.

SHIT.

Full disclosure: It's about 2:30pm, I have eaten zero food and drank one IPA. I've done a 60 minute yoga class, and I'm ready to chew off my own arm in hunger. Also the hangry level is reaching a code red. Kyle is fishing, so I call him on the off chance he's making his way home and can just swing by the expo to track down my bib. Nope.

I frantically message all of my friends that were at the expo last I left, to see if they can look for my bib. I suspect that I left it at the information table, as that was my first stop after the beer stamp table. Assuming I set it down as I was chatting. Nope. Not there. My next hope is that someone just returned it to the bib drop, so I load back into my vehicle to make the trek BACK to the expo. Just a casual 25 minute drive. Super fun way to spend my time.

Luckily for me, my sanity, and my stomach, I grabbed a luna bar as I headed out the door, ate that and drank a bunch of water, because I had also neglected that most of the day, ugh. En route to the expo, I get a message from a runner friend that another friend had just found my bib......LAYING ON THE FLOOR. [insert heavy eye roll here]

WHO GOES TO THE RACE EXPO FOR THEIR BIB AND THEN PROCEEDS TO LEAVE THEIR BIB BEHIND?!?!?

I am 33 years old. Life is hard.

I got back to the expo, grabbed my bib. Thanked everyone who helped support me on the mission for bib reconnaissance immensely for their time because of my stupidity and headed back home. For my shake out run. At 4pm, the day before the race.

The whole way home, I practiced gratitude instead of beating myself up about my stupidity: I am thankful that this isn't a goal race. I am thankful that this is a local race and I have a car readily available to get me back to the site. I'm thankful that the bib was found and there wasn't further drama to retrieve it. I'm thankful I realized it was missing early enough to track it down. I'm thankful I can afford gas in my car to make extra trips due to my stupidity.

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Week of September 11-17Monday Planned: Recovery 3 milesMonday Actual: Two mile recovery run. Kyle came out on his bike and kept me company. My calves were super tight, so I stopped to stretch a million times.

Tuesday Planned: General Aerobic + Speed 5 miles 2 sets 4x150m stridesTuesday Actual: Rest. I slept for ten hours and skipped my run. I did spend some significant time foam rolling and doing core work.Wednesday Planned: General Aerobic 7 miles Wednesday Actual: General Aerobic 7 miles + yoga. I got in 3.5 miles before the group run with Chris, and another 3.5 with the group followed by yoga.

Thursday Planned: POWER + LT 8 miles, 36 min tempo Thursday Actual: POWER + Rest. My stomach was angry. There was no way I could do a hard workout, in the heat wave with that terrible stomachache. Uff.

Friday Planned: Recovery 4 miles Friday Actual: LT 8 miles, 36 min tempo. I had the day off on Friday but skipped the coffee run because I thought Toni had overslept. Luckily she was free to do our missed tempo run after supper. I can't believe how early it's getting dark already! :'(

Saturday Planned: RestSaturday Actual: 4.14 miles shakeout run. Just a few hours after the evening's tempo run. Had planned for 5 but cut it early.

Sunday Planned: Endurance 11 milesSunday Actual: Hilly long run 11 miles. We hit all of the hills on this long run to prep for TC10!

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Stories I'd Tell in Bars is the newest book by Jen Lancaster. I used to adore Jen Lancaster. Her first 4 books were some of my favorite books I've ever read. Her last few books have been just.. meh for me. I even vowed to never read her fiction again, because I'm just not a fan. I didn't even know she had a new book out, and I'm a librarian, but it came in for a hold for my co-worker and I got her review after. She told me to give it a try, so I did.

It definitely had vintage Jen Lancaster vibes, which is great for her original fans. It's worth a read the next time you need something like and lol-worthy.

My rating: 3 stars.

Summary from Goodreads: Unfiltered. Unapologetic. Older - but arguably not wiser - Lancaster gets back to basics in this hilarious essay collection about everything from taking community policing classes to accidentally getting stoned with her waiter after a fancy dinner. These are the tales she'd tell if she met you in a bar... if she weren't too lazy to put on pants and go to a bar. Offering advice ranging from how to remain happily married to a man who refuses to blow his damn nose already to not creating An Incident at the cheese counter during an attempt at Whole30, she's you, only louder. As she details the chaos that will surely ensue if she has to learn to operate one more television remote control, you'll want to settle in and pour yourself a tall one. Because what's more fun than hearing a friend share her favorite stories?